Chocolate Covered Strawberries

People think chocolate dipped strawberries are fancy food. Honestly, I’ve never understood why. This is one of the easiest desserts I make. I’ve been making these for many years. We’ve had them for Valentine’s Day as long as I can remember. Whenever I serve them, people act so impressed. Like this is supposed to be hard. It’s not. It is so, so easy.

Method:

Step 1. Wash the strawberries. I fill a small bowl with water, hold the strawberry by the stem/leaves and immerse only the red part of the berry in the water. (If you immerse the leaves in water, as they dry they may curl and get a dried-out look that isn’t as pretty.) After dunking each strawberry, place it on a paper towel to dry completely. Or, blot off the water if you don’t have time to let them air dry. It’s important that they’re totally dry when you dunk them in melted chocolate.

Step 2. Melt the chocolate chips. Some people over-complicate this with a tedious, tricky tempering process. I’ve never bothered with that. I’ve always melted my chips in the microwave. For years. It’s worked every time. The only way you can mess up is by overcooking the chocolate. Heat and stir the chips in 20-30 second intervals until the last chunks melt and stir in. Then stop heating. Adding a small amount of canola (or vegetable) oil, gives the melted chocolate a smoother, glazy texture and appearance. Here’s my melting recipe, for more details:

TIP:If you’ll be melting a lot of chocolate, the slow cooker is a great way to melt the chips and keep them at a perfectly melted consistency for an extended period of time.

Step 3. Dip each berry in melted chocolate. Swirl the berry around in the melted chocolate, covering it in a layer of chocolate almost to the top. Let chocolate drip off and scrape off excess against edge of bowl.

Place the dipped strawberry on a tray lined with parchment or waxed paper.

Step 4. Add toppings, if desired. While the chocolate is still wet, roll the berry in toppings or sprinkle them on.